Perceptual learning styles and multimodality in EFL education: the digital learning style and social networks

Abstract

Learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is one of the greatest challenges for Spanish students. It is a complex process that involves many individual variables that need to be considered by teachers and learners. Since the late 1990s, research in the field of Applied Linguistics has been focused on learning styles as one of the internal individual variables describing the way learners process the information provided in class. Despite the growing interest in learning styles, research is recent and, therefore, limited. Besides, technology has been a revolution in educational contexts. In this sense, the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at educational centres has created a new technological context that must be taken into account in analyses. This work examines the impact of learning styles in the language classroom setting. In particular, it deals with student’s preferable perceptual channels in the new technological context. More specifically, it aims to demonstrate that a new perceptual learning style has emerged in the EFL classroom: the digital learning style. Finally, this work shows a teaching proposal that intends to demonstrate that social networks are a useful tool to be used in class because they create a multimodal context that makes language teaching and learning processes easier and more effective, as it promotes the students’ digital learning style in the language classroom.